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EMAIL SCAM

Read below to see some of the latest schemes which we have seen lately.

Plus … what’s worse than a virus? See below for the answer.

EMAIL SCAM

How are you susceptible to a email scam?

“Nothing new under the sun.”

Years ago, we would get letters in the mail informing us of the “grand raffles” we won, with promises of money and cruises to all the exotic islands.

The fact that they were mailed out, probably means they were successful to some extent.

In recent years, people send the same concept in an email as opposed to the mail. The “packaging” may be different, but the concept remains the same.

The email may say…

► Congrats on winning “X”, please reply with your account number so that we can deposit the winnings into your account

► A friend is stuck overseas and needs money immediately to be transferred to a specific checking account

► A vendor would like you to pay their bill, but please send the money to a different checking account

► To send payments to a foreign bank account or an usual payment link

While for some people these emails may seem to be an “obvious scam”, when the sender is coming from a person or address which you communicate regularly with, this becomes very tricky.

HOW TO SPOT A SCAM

What can you do to avoid being scammed?

There is no one way with which these email scams come, so we cannot say be aware of “X”. However, here are some pointers to help avoid being scammed:

► Only open emails from people you know

► If the spelling or grammar of the actual email text is incorrect, do not open the attachment or click on any links

►The attachment file or link name looks “funny” (i.e. not spelled correctly or it is an executable file), do not open the attachment or click on any links

► If the sender does not usually send you an attachment or link, do not open the attachment or click on any links without careful analysis to make sure the email is “kosher”

►If the sender is a contact of yours, but the email address is different, do not open the attachment or click on any links

► If it appears that all of a person’s contacts were CC’d on the email, make sure the email was really sent from the sender

► If the email simply says “click here for X”. If this comes from a known sender, reply back asking if the sender really sent it before clicking on the link (and be sure it’s the sender responding!)

► If the email requires you to pay via a certain method

WHAT CAN BE WORST THAN A VIRUS?​

Viruses are scary (and annoying) but what’s worst than a virus?

Generally speaking, when a person clicks on an email which is a scam, they end up with some level of a virus or spyware on their PC. Many times the virus accesses the new person’s contact list and starts sending out emails using the new email address and/or name to further perpetuate the virus.

Many times a virus slows down your PC.

What is worst than a slow PC?

Losing all your data.

We find when a hard drive fails and all your data is no longer accessible may be far worse than a virus.

Why?

A virus is generally repairable with same-day service.

A broken hard drive can take two weeks to recover data, and sometimes that only recovers partial data!

WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS?

What should you do?

With regards to scam emails…

Try to be vigilant, always be on guard. This applies to emails which come from known senders and unknown senders.

With regard to your hard drive…

If there will be any loss of data, make sure you have a backup system set up and actively running.

As a matter fact, why don’t you spend the next 3 minutes checking your backup to make sure it’s current!

Not sure how?

Email support@avenuemcomputers.com for more assistance.

What are your thoughts?

Please let us know!

Email us at newsletters@avenuemcomputers.com

Please note:

If you are not comfortable following these instructions, please contact us for assistance.

We take no responsibility for attempting any of the above mentioned steps or instructions.